Choices, Changes and Chances
by Elena Takami
Summary: Sasuke's mission has always been the removal of all the Uchiha clan from the world. With Itachi dead, Sasuke casts one last jutsu, only to find that Chance has other plans. AU for time travel, changes to cast, and alternate Team 7.
1. The First Choice

_This is the prologue to what could become a longer fic, if I'm not too lazy._

_It's supposed to be a character study, rather than anything else; so the first couple of chapters will probably be quite action free. The divergence point from canon is actually the Valley of the End; Naruto failed to catch up, leaving Sasuke free to wander straight to Orochimaru. From there, he studied a little, but left fairly soon with the conclusion that Orochimaru was not worth the effort; since then he's wandered. This prologue takes place when Sasuke is actually about 15._

_As always, I make no claim to the characters, plot, or world of Naruto; I merely borrow them, in an attempt to entertain._

**Choices, Changes, and Chances**

The Choice That Starts It All.

There's blood on his hands, but that's old news for Sasuke. He's much more interested in Itachi, or more specifically Itachi's corpse.

He leans over to check, but it has definitely happened; Itachi's pulse has stopped, his breathing stilled, the Sharingan deactivated. A numbness overcomes Sasuke, but that's to be expected. His life's mission is done, the one constant of his life is over, but there's still two things left to do before it can truly be called finished, and that's what Sasuke fixates on now.

The first thing is easy enough; a single flame jutsu and Itachi is ash on the breeze. There will be no studying of his corpse; the mangekyou Sharingan is gone from the world now.

The second gives him pause for a moment, although he knows it was always part of the vow. _All the Uchiha_, he reminds himself, and there's still one left to carry the blood of all those generations. He'd prefer Naruto be here to do this for him, as suicide has always seemed like a coward's route, but Naruto is gone too somewhere along the way. Instead Sasuke recalls one of the forbidden jutsu he has learnt somewhere along the way. With the recollection comes the description, too; _the total removal of the caster from the world_, it said. There will be no corpse, no blood, no bodies to study, and truly, the Uchiha clan will be gone from the world. He's not sure why it was forbidden, though, as it seems to be a pretty standard jutsu for captured spies, but it is the most thorough spell he's found and the one with the most vaguely worded warnings, so it's the one he chooses for this last task.

There's a curious moment of peace as he starts the hand seals. _This will be it_, he knows, and although he's heard of the past flashing before someone soon to die, it doesn't happen. He's glad for it, with so many things he'd rather forget. With the last seal comes a single regret, _I wish it could have gone differently,_ the last thing to cross Sasuke's mind before the jutsu activates and the last of the Uchiha vanishes, leaving a battered landscape and a swirl of dustmotes behind.


	2. First Meetings

_Insert some variety of Naruto disclaimer here, I suppose. I don't make money at the best of times, I'm not going to make it off fanfiction when there are far better authors than me._

_This is an AU, which is pretty much described by the title and the phrase "Sasuke travels through time and dimensions and ends up in a very similiar world, only Naruto is a girl and no, there probably won't be any romance." Yes, Fuuko's name is deliberate. This story was plotted about when Kakashi Gaiden was being released, so may not be canon compliant at all for after the Gaara retrieval arc. Oops. I think that's all I need to warn you about, other than my tendancy to ramble. Anyway._

* * *

_A voice, between the moments of sleep and awakening. A bitter, dry voice. "...remake your decisions wisely, Uchiha. Choose where you should be..."_

Sasuke woke up, and for one very uncomfortable moment was surprised to find himself alive, let alone awake. He had been... dreaming, he supposed, although it was very rare he dreamt and even rarer it be of anything but that day. This nightmare had somehow been worse; it had ended with his death, and it was somewhat disquieting to remember that moment. As to the rest of the dream, that didn't have the same clarity, but still...

_A surprised face, a bloodstained hand, darkness. Energy and auras, horribly distorted. Eyes. Black and red, in an unending kaleidoscope of patterns._

The visions lingered, and it was on auto-pilot that he managed to be up and dressed and on his way to school, in clothes and a body that somehow felt wrong. He needed to be alert, he knew; needed to be paying attention, learning every last drop of useful information and training. He really didn't need to be distracted by useless thoughts, especially useless thoughts of people who didn't actually exist. Blond hair and blue eyes weren't that uncommon in Konoha. Sasuke could name two people with that combination in his year alone, although neither of them was male.

Still, dreams rarely made sense, right? He'd probably taken one or the other of the irritating blonde girls and made them somehow worse. Fuuko was bad enough, being loud, brash, and far too confident in her very lacklustre skills, but at least she didn't hang over him at every available second like Ino did.

He managed to arrive at the school, still wrestling with his oddly misbehaving thoughts; he even managed to make it through the morning's lessons, although he nearly went to the wrong classroom twice, and during the History of Konoha class, he ended up staring at the back of Fuuko's head, trying to work out if

_Blond hair and blue eyes and strange marks like whiskers and a look like the world had betrayed him and a hand covered in blood emerging from his chest_

it was her his dream had tried to use. It was true she had the same amount of energy. Sasuke got tired just watching as she squirmed and wriggled and generally apparently found it impossible to sit still and pay attention. Unfortunately for her, the teacher also found it impossible to ignore her.

"Well then, Uzumaki... perhaps you could come and stand here at the front and tell us all about the war?" he said, with the same bored and somewhat frustrated tone of voice he'd been using all lesson.

Uzumaki, of course, literally bounced to her feet, and almost ran to the front of the class, an impossibly wide, idiotic (and worryingly toothy, Sasuke had to admit) grin plastered across her face. She gazed across the classroom, and her eyes must have caught someone else's, further behind him. For just a brief second, the grin was less stupid, being replaced by something that still showed her amusement, but with something more cunning behind it. Then she spoke, and the impression was completely gone.

"Well, I guess... there were two countries, and one of them had something the other one wanted like more land, or money, or maybe one of the ruler's insulted the other ruler's wife, and both countries had a ninja village, and the countries went to war over whatever it was, and the country with the better trained ninja probably won it, and then it got some history guy to rewrite it so there was a really, really good reason for it, right?"

She stood there, still grinning, totally relaxed. The teacher was somewhat less amused, being a rather sour genin who had never managed to pass a test any further up the ranks, and the next five minutes were an argument between the girl, who apparently felt she'd done exactly what had been asked of her, and the teacher who had apparently expected names, dates, locations, and the official reason for the war. It was ended only by the bell, this time for lunch, and Uzumaki apparently deciding food was more important than being right. She was the first person out of the door, anyway.

Sasuke, on the other hand, had to fend off the girls who kept gathering around his desk. It took a while, as none of them seemed to be able to get his lack of interest in their pointless, inane, boring chatter into their heads. Already in a bad mood, it was made somewhat worse by the realisation that he'd forgotten to bring his own.

_Stupidity. Always, always, always be prepared for the day ahead. Sleep and eat what you can, when you can._

No vision this time, just a voice, dry and factual. Sasuke was inclined to agree with it. Leaving the girls to argue over his favourite colour, he walked outside, and aimed straight for one of his usual... not hiding places, those were childish and anyway, why did an Uchiha need to hide? Still, it was a quiet place between the bushes that surrounded the school, to sit and study and if, by some chance, it also happened to be a place where certain people wouldn't come looking for him, that was a bonus. Unfortunately for Sasuke, and his increasingly uncomfortable and crowded mind, it was also occupied by one very blonde haired female ninja student, who for a few brief seconds appeared to be talking to herself until Sasuke noticed the Hyuuga girl sat quietly to one side, and briefly chastised himself. A good ninja did not miss things like that.

Even more surprising was that they were talking to each other at all. For someone as obnoxiously and unrelentingly cheerful as Fuuko, she didn't seem to have many friends, nor really try to make them, and the Hyuuga... Hinata wasn't the sort of person Sasuke expected to be talking to such an obvious dead-last clanless failure as Fuuko was. All he really remembered of Hnata was a quiet presence, competent enough at most things, although she was let down by her lack of skills in the more physical ninja arts. Still, she had a hand over her mouth, obviously stifling a smile, and Fuuko, having finished her speech on the evils of history lessons and boring teachers, had thrown herself down on to the grass next to the Hyuuga in a way that suggested it happened pretty frequently. Something clicked in Sasuke's head; it was Hinata who sat behind him in history, and so that strange grin was explained. He sighed and turned to find a better place to sit; unfortunately, the movement was enough to draw Fuuko's attention, and she bounced back to her feet in no time flat.

"Who's there?" she asked, sounding oddly panicky, like she'd been caught doing something wrong. Sasuke knew he should just leave, before it became more hassle, but. The vision was oddly silent on this, like it couldn't place it at all, and Sasuke was enjoying the freedom of not having two sets of thoughts at the same time.

The thought of a moments' peace won the internal battle, and he turned round. Neither of the girls was smiling any more, and both looked slightly guilty. Oddly enough, when Fuuko saw who it was, she relaxed; Hinata remained worried, although from what Sasuke could recall, that was normal for her. Fuuko dropped back down. "Hi, Sasuke-kun. Sorry, we were here first, but there's enough room for 3 people." There was a slightly agressive tone to Fuuko's voice, and Sasuke could almost hear the unvoiced challenge of _'try and make us move'_.

"Ah... Fuuko, maybe w-we should just move. We'll only annoy Uchiha-san if we stay here," Hinata said, sounding nervous.

"Fine," Sasuke said, almost simultaneously. He sat down, as far away from the two girls as he could manage and still be in the clearing. There was a brief burst of muttered conversation, too low for Sasuke to make out clearly, before the girls simultaneously shrugged and brought out lunch boxes, leaving Sasuke to brood in more or less peace for a couple of minutes before the muttering started again, along with a couple of looks in his direction. Sasuke ignored it as best he could, although he was starting to curse his curiosity; whatever was going on, it probably wasn't that important. He'd almost succeeded in blocking them out, as well, when Fuuko sudddenly stood up.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun, where's your lunch?" she asked, and jolted out of his reverie, he actually answered.

"Forgot it."

"Really? How'd you manage that? Usually one of the other girls just "happens" to have a spare you can have, right?" inquired Fuuko. Sasuke, not being a fan of being pelted with questions, just snorted in response; it didn't really put her off, though. "You know they all put so much effort into those, right? They spend hours talking about your favourite food, you know? Oh well, I guess it might get a bit annoying to have all that attention if you don't ask for it, right?"

Surprised, Sasuke turned round to look at the two girls. Hinata looked like she'd rather be somewhere else right now; Fuuko, for a moment, looked oddly sympathetic, and then ruined it by grinning again.

"Anyway, here. Me and Hinata-chan have too much food, so you can have this, ok?" Walking across the clearing, she held out one of the inner sections of a bento; it actually held a rather substantial amount of food. Perched on top was a rather messy rice ball. "I always make too many rice balls. I'd bring ramen, cause I could eat all of that, but it's a bit hard to find a kettle at school." It was pretty obvious she wasn't going to go away, so Sasuke took the tray.

"...Thanks," he said, although quietly. Fuuko gave him a funny look, and went to sit down again, but obviously changed her mind and started pacing up and down the clearing. There was silence, briefly, and then after a short conversation between the girls about how annoying (Fuuko) or necessary (Hinata) the Ninja code was, Hinata finally persuaded Fuuko to run her way through the code, so at least one teacher would stop lecturing her. Fuuko allowed that Iruka-sensei was much less annoying than some of the other teachers, sighed, and finally began to babble her way through the code, inserting running commentary on it as she went. Sasuke listened with half an ear; a lot of what she was saying was obviously silly, some of it born from frustration, but every now and again she actually managed to say something half smart. Sasuke was almost surprised. The Fuuko in class was loud, stupid, and far too inclined to play up; this Fuuko was slightly calmer, slightly wiser, and seemed to at least be attempting serious, even if she couldn't stay still during the recital, or stop herself from trying to be funny. Sasuke suddenly caught himself wondering how much of Fuuko's behaviour in the classroom was just frustration and playing up to people who already believed she was a failure. He finished eating in a contemplative mood, Fuuko still going through the code, slowly.

"Rule 25! A shinobi must never show... fear!" Fuuko declaimed.

"Ah... actually..." Hinata started, before Sasuke interjected,

"It's tears. A shinobi must never show tears," he said, before berating himself for getting involved. He didn't need to be involved, and the two girls probably didn't want him interfering...

"Oh, right. Thanks, Sasuke-kun!" Fuuko looked bemused, but genuinely appreciative, like he'd done her a favour.

The only response she got was a grunt, as Sasuke stood up and walked across the clearing to give Hinata the tray back. She smiled at him, timidly, but Sasuke paid no notice. This wasn't important. It got him no closer to his goals at all.

_But wasn't it nice to know that someone cared if you were there or not? Not the image they had of you, but the real you?_

Sasuke almost groaned. What was with the thoughts that weren't his, the dream of a life that never was?

"...and anyway, the code makes no sense. Why can't a ninja cry? some of it I understand and some of it is just wrong. When I'm Hokage, I'm going to change things!" Fuuko declared.

_I'm gonna be Hokage and everyone will acknowledge me!_

Sasuke shook his head. Unfortunately, Fuuko caught him.

"Fine, don't believe me. One day, I'm gonna be the best ninja in this village! I'll be better than you and Hinata's cousin put together!"

Sasuke's lips quirked, slightly. "You've got a long way to go, then," he said, and left.


End file.
